Tribe torches Vikings in first match under LaGuardia

KINGSPORT — A new era in Dobyns-Bennett soccer got off to an auspicious start Tuesday.

In a rousing season opener under first-year coach Tom LaGuardia, the Indians mercy-ruled Tennessee High 9-0 in a District 1-AAA match at Indian Highland Park.

“The guys put in a good effort tonight,” said LaGuardia, a former goalkeeper and 1992 grad of D-B. “We talked before the match about coming out strong. They did that, but there are still a lot of things we need to clean up, but that’s good.

“We want to create a standard that was D-B soccer. No more peaks and valleys, just peaks.”

The Indians were regular-season, District 1 and Region 1 champions last season and advanced to the TSSAA Class AAA tournament.

D-B senior Spencer Correll did not start Tuesday’s game, but seconds after he ran onto the pitch in the eighth minute, Correll one-timed a pass from Alex Depew into the back of the Vikings’ goal and the onslaught began.

Jack Perry assisted on Gavyn McGhee’s goal in the 12th and within seconds Sam Garcia made it 3-0 on a Depew assist.

“Coach always tells us to ‘exhaust the moment,’ ” Correll noted. “When I got into the game, that’s all I was thinking. He has told us not to dwell on the past and that we can be special.”

Carter Swinney made the score 4-0 in the 23rd, and freshman Maddox Devinney upped the advantage to 5-0 just before halftime on an assist from Correll.

All told, the Tribe had 25 shots in the first half, 17 of them on goal.

The second half was more of the same. Perry scored on a penalty kick, Will Arrowood headed in a goal off a crossing pass from Martin Torres and Jackson Martin pushed the lead to 8-0 in the 72nd.

To the delight of the Tribe players and fans, all-state goalkeeper Jacob Park was moved out into the field of play late in the second half. Park headed in a goal in the 73rd minute, making the score 9-0 and invoking the mercy rule.